Evidence keyed to Waltz
DeShaney v. Winnebago County
Facts
In 1984, four-year-old Joshua DeShaney went into a coma resulting in profound retardation due to traumatic head injuries inflicted by his father who physically beat him over a long period of time. The Department received numerous complaints of the abuse and took various steps to protect the child. The Department did not, however, remove Joshua from his father’s custody. Ms. DeShaney subsequently sued the Department. She contended that the Department had deprived the child of his “liberty interest in bodily integrity, in violation of his rights under the substantive component of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause, by failing to intervene to protect him against his father’s violence.”
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